The critics and opponents of Soviet rule in Georgia accused Moscow of robbing the country of its national identity. This rhetoric also persisted after independence was achieved in 1991 and is widespread throughout Georgia. Historian Davit Jischkariani questions this perspective. The central political positions in Georgia were planned in Moscow’s centre up to 1991, as they were for all other Soviet republics as well. However, it was local elites who implemented Moscow’s policies in the outlying regions and exploited the growing latitude for manoeuvring after Stalin’s death. Davit Jischkariani is a co-founder of SOVLAB, the Soviet Past Research Laboratory in Tbilisi. He studied history at the Iv. Javakhischwili University Tbilisi from 2004 to 2008. In 2010, he embarked on a master’s degree in Russian Studies, graduating in 2012. Jischkariani was Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Warsaw 2013/14. He currently teaches ‘Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th Century’ at the Caucasus University. His research fields include Repression in the Soviet Union, Stalinism, and Soviet national politics.